Court upholds racehorse insemination ban

A long-standing ban on using artificial insemination (AI) technology in thoroughbred racehorses has been upheld by the Federal Court.

Former bookmaker and Sydney Turf Club chairman Bruce McHugh brought the multi-million-dollar court case against the racing industry.

In the six-week trial, Mr McHugh challenged the Australian Racing Board, the Australian Stud Book and Thoroughbred Breeders Australia against the global ban of registration of thoroughbreds produced by AI.

Australia is one of about 70 countries signed up to agreements which state thoroughbreds can only be conceived naturally.

He argued the agreement caused a restraint of trade and breached section 45 of the Competition and Consumer Act.

But Justice Tony Robertson dismissed the case, which has cost the parties involved an estimated $10 million.

Justice Robertson said Mr McHugh had failed to show the AI rule was a restraint of trade, because he accepted it was a reasonable provision when it was established "many decades ago to prevent the attribution of incorrect paternity to a thoroughbred horse".

Mr McHugh had not proved the AI rule had substantially lessened competition, Justice Robertson said, adding that overturning the ban would downgrade "the status of thoroughbred races held in Australia".

The racing industry had argued that lifting the ban would lead to horses not being recognised by the International Stud Book Committee, which would prevent them competing overseas.

Outside court, ARB chief executive Peter McGauran said he felt "a sense of great relief" at the judgment.

"A sport is entitled to arrange itself according to its own requirements and needs," Mr McGauran said.

"It would have been impossible for Australia to remain within the international trading community if we had raced AI horses with naturally conceived thoroughbreds.

"A judge has found the rules of our sport are not anti-competitive."

Mr McHugh was present to hear Wednesday's judgment but left the court without addressing the media.

It's a fundamental human yearning to be a part of something bigger than one's self, and maybe that's what drove my mate Ash to die, far from home, in a bloody foreign war against Islamic State, writes C August Elliott.